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Challenges and Perspectives of Biorefineries

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Emerging Technologies for Biorefineries, Biofuels, and Value-Added Commodities

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Abstract

The valorization of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) to biofuels and value-added commodities in biorefineries shows the promise to address the energy demands, the global climate changes, and the societal needs. However, it is still urgent to develop modern biorefinery scenarios to transform LCB into high-value products for the sustainability and feasibility. This chapter summarizes the challenges and perspectives of biorefineries from the aspects of the LCB properties, the process and product, the conversional and emerging technologies, and the lignin valorization. Due to the complex structures of LCB, a substantial knowledge in understanding of its intrinsic properties is essential to facilitate sustainable conversion. The conversional and emerging technologies related to pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation and the interactions among these units have been described systematically. The development of these technologies would further reduce the process cost of biorefineries. After that, the lignin valorization strategies have been discussed to make a sustainable biorefinery. The requirements of innovative modern biorefineries have been proposed to meet the implication of LCB conversion to biofuels and value-added commodities. The summary of these perspectives of LCB upgrading to a diverse set of products would guide the process design, the technology development, and the implementation of biorefineries by mitigating technical risk for scale-up with the improvement of the profitability of biorefinery. Overall, the improved sustainability of biorefinery holds potential advantages to address the problems facing the energy and the societal needs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Zhi-Hua Liu

  2. Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Zhi-Hua Liu

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  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Jinnan District, Tianjin, China

    Zhi-Hua Liu

  2. Chemical & Bio-molecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Art Ragauskas

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Liu, ZH. (2021). Challenges and Perspectives of Biorefineries. In: Liu, ZH., Ragauskas, A. (eds) Emerging Technologies for Biorefineries, Biofuels, and Value-Added Commodities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65584-6_1

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